Two Russian stories that framed late March 2019

What did Moscow's actions in the days before 28 March 2019 show about its priorities at home and abroad? Two events, a few days apart, point in different directions.

On 22 March 2019, Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Gryb was sentenced in Russia to six years in prison. His case belongs to the wider group of Ukrainians held in Russia whom Kyiv regards as political prisoners.

On 24 March 2019, two Russian military planes, an Ilyushin Il-62 and an Antonov An-124, landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas. They carried a senior Defence Ministry official, Vasily Tonkoshkurov, a large amount of equipment and about 100 troops. Russia had held joint military exercises on Venezuelan soil three months earlier. It also condemned other countries for backing opposition leader Juan Guaidó against embattled President Nicolás Maduro.

Two arenas, one posture

The two events are separate and no link between them is established. Together, though, they show Russia acting firmly on two fronts in the same week: through its courts against a Ukrainian prisoner, and through a visible military deployment in support of Maduro's government in Venezuela.